The VA was uncertain whether an Enola Gay crew member would be covered by the legislation because the crew was in the air when the bomb was dropped. It allows veterans or their survivors to claim service-related benefits if the veteran was exposed to radiation and subsequently suffered certain cancers within 40 years or certain kinds of leukemia within 30 years. Veterans groups lobbied hard for the Radiation Exposed Veterans Compensation Act, which became law May 20.
″I was fascinated, and asked the VA to reconsider a service connection for cause of death,″ Bielak said. During conversations at that time, he learned that her husband was a crew member on the Enola Gay. Shumard when she was having trouble collecting her limited benefits in 1980. I can pay some of the bills that had gotten behind,″ she said.īielak first went to bat for Mrs. He’s been fighting for the last eight years,″ Mrs. ″When I heard the good news, I almost fell to the floor.
Shumard, who will receive five times the $133 a month she now gets in benefits from the VA, credits the help of Veterans of Foreign Wars member Norman Bielak.
